Judge At The Wrong End Of A Gavel Bang Gets 5 Years In Federal Prison

Enjoy the schadenfreude when a judge finds himself at the mercy of a court -- when he is accused of abusing his judicial authority.

onJuly 9, 2015 at 12:08 PM

From high atop their perch on the bench, judges seem like masters of their domain, making decisions and occasionally creating laws that have a real-world impact on the peons in front of them. So there is some natural schadenfreude when judges find themselves at the mercy of a court, especially when they are accused of abusing their judicial authority.

The trouble began when Angela Garmley had a case in front of then magistrate judge Bryant Cochran. Garmley alleges Cochran came onto her, offering leniency for sexual favors. Garmley complained to the Judicial Qualifications Commission, and was a cooperating witness in an ethics probe into the judge’s behavior. That’s when Cochran went all Doctor Evil.

Cochran orchestrated a plan to plant drugs in Garmley’s car and have her arrested so she would be discredited during the ethics probe. As the Daily Report reports (emphasis ours):

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From Pilot and Above The Law

Cochran resigned as chief magistrate judge in August 2012, but not before he used his contacts in the Murray County Sheriff’s Department, including his first cousin, to arrange for the arrest of state witness Angela Garmley.

Last December, a federal jury in Rome convicted Cochran of violating Garmley’s civil rights, tampering with a witness, and illegal distribution of the drugs which were planted under her car and were the basis of her illegal arrest. Cochran was also convicted of civil rights violations associated with the sexual harassment of the magistrate court’s clerks.

That seems like the plot from a Lifetime movie — Tainted Justice.

For all this effort, U.S. District Judge Harold Murphy sentenced Cochran to five years in prison. Cochran’s lawyer does plan to appeal the jury conviction, but in the meantime, I am sure federal prison will be a special experience for an ex-judge.

Judge Sentences Former County Magistrate to Five Years in Corruption Case [Daily Report]